Daedalus (person)

An Athenian and a member of the royal family through his descent from Cecrops (Table 4), Daedalus was a skilled and versatile artist, being in turn architect, sculptor, and inventor of mechanical devices. In times of Antiquity he was credited with archaic works of art including some more mythical in character than real, such as the animated statues mentioned by Plato in his Menon. According to some legends, Daedalus' father was Eupalamus, and his mother was Alcippe; in others his father was Palaemon, or alternatively METION, grandson of Erechtheus.

Daedalus worked in Athens, where his nephew Talos, son of his sister Perdix, was his pupil. Talos proved so talented that Daedalus became jealous, and when Talos, drawing his inspiration from the jaw-bone of a serpent, invented the saw, Daedalus threw him from the top of the Acropolis. The murder was discovered, and Daedalus was arraigned before the Areopagus, found guilty, and sentenced to exile. He fled to Crete, where he became architect and resident sculptor at the court of King Minos.

When Minos' wife PASIPHAE became enamoured of a bull, Daedalus constructed a wooden cow for her. He also built the Labyrinth of Minos - a palace with a maze of corridors in which the Minotaur was confined - and then in due course suggested to Ariadne the trick which saved Theseus when he went to fight the Minotaur. Theseus was to take a ball of thread, which he would unroll as he made his way into the Labyrinth so that he would be able to find his way back along the same route. When Minos learnt of Theseus' success, and the trick he had used to achieve it, he imprisoned Daedalus in the Labyrinth, at Theseus' accomplice, together with his son ICARUS (whom Daedalus had fathered on a palace slave named Naecrate). But Daedalus made wings for himself and his son, which he attached with wax, and they both flew off. Daedalus reached Cumae safe and sound.

Minos hunted him in every country while he lay in hiding at Camicos in Sicily, under the protection of King Cocalus (for the ruse by which Minos discovered Daedalus' hiding-place, see COCALUS). Once Minos had been killed by King Cacalus' daughters, Daedalus showed his gratitude to his host by erecting many buildings.